Finally reaching Edwin’s door under the butler’s guidance, Leira hesitated before knocking on the firmly shut door, as if it were guarding a forbidden secret.
“Edwin?”
No answer came from within. Was he asleep? Not a single servant or secretary seemed to care about their master’s well-being. If they had eyes, they would’ve seen how drained and frail Edwin looked—like a wilted plant. Leira cursed them all under his breath as he pushed the gilded handle.
“Edwin, it’s me. Can I come in?”
The door opened soundlessly, revealing the familiar room he’d visited since childhood. The only difference was the furniture, now sized for an adult.
“What the…? He’s in the bath.”
Clothes—a shirt and pants—were strewn haphazardly near the bathroom. Leira nudged them aside with his foot. Edwin, who bordered on obsessive cleanliness, would never leave things like this. He must be really sick. Debating whether to open the bathroom door, Leira ultimately shook his head and sat on the single-seater sofa, waiting patiently.
Then, after about ten minutes, he realized something was wrong.
The bathroom was eerily silent. No sound of water, no movement—nothing. Leira’s face stiffened as he stood abruptly, staring at the bathroom door.
No… Could he have collapsed in there?
Panic clawed at him as he stumbled forward, flinging the door open. A thick cloud of steam billowed out, so dense he couldn’t see a thing.
“EDWIN!”
His voice trembled as he waved his hands frantically, dispersing the fog. For a moment, his vision blurred—then he saw it.
Something massive. Something black. At first, he couldn’t even comprehend what it was. But his instincts screamed: This is wrong. This is terrifying.
His body froze from his toes upward, his breath catching in his throat. He slapped a hand over his mouth to stifle a scream.
The monstrous thing filled the bathtub, coiled and motionless. Slowly, Leira began to back away, careful not to make a sound. He had to get out before that thing noticed him.
But his trembling legs betrayed him. He stumbled backward, crashing into the porcelain washbasin. Glass bottles of perfume shattered explosively.
CRASH!
The noise jolted the creature. Its massive body twitched, then slowly, sinuously, it lifted its head.
Time seemed to stop.
Green eyes—Edwin’s eyes—locked onto him. But the rest of it… A demonic monster with scales blacker than night, its half-shed skin sloughing off in the water. A beast so enormous it could swallow a small animal whole.
A snake.
Leira’s scream tore from his throat before he could stop it. “Hyaa—! A-AAAH!” He scrambled out of the bathroom, but his feet slipped on the spilled perfume, sending him crashing to the floor. His knees hit the ground hard enough to crack, but he felt no pain.
Then—something heavy coiled around his ankle.
A shiver of pure terror raced up his spine. He looked down. The snake, its shed skin still clinging to its tail, slithered up his leg. Its thick, muscular body tapered into a sleek, endless curve, its head as wide as a man’s calf.
Leira’s breath came in ragged gasps. Warm liquid trickled down his thigh—he’d pissed himself in terror.
He thrashed wildly, crawling backward, glass shards cutting into his palms. But his legs gave out, and he collapsed again. The snake’s weight now pressed against his waist.
Panic blurred his vision. His fingers closed around something cold and solid—an overturned silver candlestick. Without thinking, he swung it with all his strength.
“NO!!”
THUD!
The candlestick connected with the snake’s head. Only then did he realize what he’d done. The creature—Edwin—lay bleeding on the floor. Leira’s face drained of color as he tried to scramble away, but something yanked his ankle.
“…Where do you think you’re going?”
The voice was impossibly calm. Cool, like a summer forest. Leira whipped around—and nearly blacked out.
A monster straight from myth stood before him. Wet black hair, a face he knew too well, broad shoulders that had held him countless times… and below that—
A snake’s body.
***
Blood still dripping from the wound on its head, Edwin—his pupils slit like a reptile’s—dragged himself forward, gripping Leira’s ankle. His hands slid up Leira’s waist.
“Where… are you… going? Don’t… leave.”
Leira had never seen anything like it. A man fused with a serpent. A nightmare. But the voice, the warmth—it was unmistakably Edwin.
“E-Ed… Edwin?” His voice shook like a leaf.
Edwin bound Leira’s wrists with his strong, beautiful arms, his gaze dropping to the floor. There lay the grotesque, twisted body of a beast—his lower half. No legs. Just endless black scales glistening from his hips downward, tapering into a sinuous tail.
Anyone would call him beautiful—delicate yet seductive. But this… this thing attached to him—could it even be called human?
“What… what are you?” Leira’s denial spilled out like a plea.
Edwin’s voice was hollow. “This… is what I am.”
“No… no, this isn’t—”
“I’m what you saved.”
Leira’s mind reeled. Saved? Edwin had always been frail as a child, but Leira had never saved his life. They were childhood friends, classmates, lovers in secret—nothing more.
Yet Edwin’s voice trembled with something raw, something wounded. Betrayal. Pain. As if Leira had forgotten him entirely.
“Back then… and now… it’s always been me.”
“H-Hah… Edwin…”
“Ah. I see. This is why you’re running.” A bitter laugh. “Because I’m hideous like this.”
The resignation in his voice was laced with fury. He stayed frozen for a long moment, then his emerald eyes locked onto a shard of glass—a piece of the shattered perfume bottle. Before Leira could stop him, Edwin seized it and drove it into his own scales.
THUD. THUD.
Leira lunged, grabbing Edwin’s arm. “EDWIN!!”
Pale, blood-splattered, Edwin clutched Leira’s shoulder, his green eyes burning like a demon’s.
“If I can’t walk… I’ll tear myself apart to do it.”
His teeth ground together. The man—no, the monster—who had once been Edwin glared at Leira with something dark and desperate.
“I’m still your Edwin.”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
